Jay Leno is handing over "The Tonight Show" torch to Jimmy Fallon
on February 17th, something he has come to terms with but is
acknowledging for the first time that it was not his decision to exit.
The 63-year-old is breaking his
silence in an interview with "60 Minutes" airing this Sunday about NBC's
decision to have Jimmy Fallon host the late-night show.
"It's not my decision," he
revealed. "I think I probably would have stayed if we didn't have an
extremely qualified young guy ready to jump in."
Still, he still doesn't seem to
have any hard feelings for his successor. "I probably would have stayed a
little longer, but we have a very talented, very good, I think he's
more like a young Johnny than anybody since," he said. "So you go with
the new guy; makes perfect sense to me."
The car enthusiast may not be
bent out of shape about leaving this time around, but he didn't seem to
feel the same about what happened in 2009, when NBC decided to replace
him with Conan O'Brien. The comedian admitted that he felt blindsided,
and he compared it to feeling a lot like a breakup.
"I was blindsided. ... [NBC
executives said] 'You're out...' and I went 'OK,'" he said, about the
first time he learned Conan would be taking over. "You know, you have a
girl [who] says, 'I don't want to see you anymore.' Why? You know, she
doesn't want to see you anymore, OK?"
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